Abstract. Technical regulations can act as powerful protectionist tools, yet it remains unclear whether they benefit domestic producers. This paper studies the introduction of Technical Barriers to Trade (TBTs) in India in the early 2000s and examines how domestic firms respond. Using detailed panel data on Indian manufacturing firms from 1997–2005 and exploiting variation in TBTs exposure across industries, we focus on the automotive sector, where trade-flow evidence indicates that TBTs sharply reduced imports. We find that domestic firms responded by substantially increasing R&D and technology transfer, reorganizing inputs toward higherquality components, and consolidating product lines around protected products. These adjustments raised domestic sales by about 30 percent relative to firms in untreated industries and encouraged entry into foreign markets among previously non-exporting firms. Rather than relying on market power, firms used the temporary reduction in foreign competition to upgrade technologically and restructure production. Overall, our results show that, beyond restricting trade, TBTs can serve as credible instruments of industrial policy, fostering structural transformation and resilience—particularly in developing countries where domestic firms face competitive disadvantages.
Presentation: 14th Conference on Economics of Global Interactions (University of Bari, 2025), Università della Svizzera Italiana, Brown Bag Seminar Series (Lugano, 2025), European Trade Study Group Conference (Athens School of Economics, 2024)
Abstract. Anecdotal evidence suggests that intellectual property recognition is often a politically driven mechanism. This paper studies the impact of political support on the provision of intellectual protection. Using novel data from the Fascist period in Italy, I investigate how local support for the regime influenced the granting of patents and trademarks by the central government.
To gauge local Fascist support, I leverage the spatial distribution of political activists associated with parties historically opposed to Fascism, as documented by Italian police prior to Mussolini's rise to power.
I employ different econometric techniques, using both a cross-sectional and difference-in-differences approach. Estimates provide robust evidence of the political manipulation in favor of firms located in provinces where the opposition to the regime was initially stronger. The effect holds regardless of the local level of development and industrialization. My results indicate that the regime favoured the granting of patents and trademarks in areas that could have represented potential sources of political instability. More broadly, these findings suggest that authoritarian leaders may strategically manipulate the allocation of these intangible assets to pursue their political objectives.
Presentation: REFLEX Meeting (Lugano, 2023); InsTED Workshop 2023; Glasgow RES Conference 2023; Centre for Economic and Regional Studies (Budapest, 2023); USI Lugano (2023); HEC Lausanne (2023); Lancaster University Management School (2022); 12th Conference on Economics of Global Interactions (University of Bari, 2022); 3rd PhD Summer School on Economics and Finance (Universita’ degli Studi Federico II, 2022); NWSSDTP Conference (University of Manchester, 2022)
Abstract. We identify a new channel that explains suboptimal private investments in innovation: the risk of a superior design leading to decreased product differentiation. In standard models, a successful innovation temporarily increases a firm’s profit, until laggards catch up and profits return to normal. We show that, when innovation leads initially differentiated firms to converge on a single superior variety, they actually end up with lower market power and profit than pre-innovation, decreasing the private incentives to innovate in the first place. We illustrate this dynamic with evidence from the shrimp industry. In the late 1990s, a US government program led to major productivity improvements in the domestic variety. Over time, however, other countries shifted from their native production to adopt the same variety, decimating the US shrimp industry.
Presentation: Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (ETH Zurich, 2025); Centre for Economic and Regional Studies (Budapest, 2023), European Economic Association (Bocconi University, 2022); XXXVI Jornadas de Economía Industrial (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2022); PhD Symposium in Industrial Economics (Loughborough University, 2022); Lancaster University Management School (2021)
Abstract. Recent events have posed considerable challenges to supply chain, as demonstrated by trade data. Yet, firm-level information on the recent challenges remains scarce. The Supply Chain Disruption Survey addresses this gap by generating insights into companies’ experiences and expectations regarding their supplier relationships, with a special focus on the role of intangibles and changes over time. Conducted as part of the RETHINK-GSC Horizon research project, the survey was carried out in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Hungary between mid-2023 and spring 2024. The survey focused on medium-sized and large firms operating in various manufacturing industries. This paper has two main objectives: first, it provides information about the survey's background, design, questionnaire, and implementation; and second, it presents the key patterns visible in the survey.
Abstract. We use a dataset of more than 60,000 Hungarian biographies to study which characteristics predict managerial success. We ask wo questions: (i) which traits—such as education, career trajectory, international experience, or family and network background—predict managerial success, and (ii) how the relevance and
returns to these traits have evolved across generations and institutional regimes. Hungary’s market liberalization in the 1990s provides a natural setting to examine how institutional change reshaped both selection into management and the productivity of managerial skills.
(Draft coming soon!)
Presentation: Junior Research Day (Queen Mary University, London, 2025)
Using data on WTO disputes from 1995–2018, I show a strong “China effect”: post-WTO accession, countries are over three times more likely to target China, with disputes shaped by trade tensions, strategic retaliation, and shifts in regime-similarity patterns. (Draft available upon request).
Presentation: 12th Conference on Economics of Global Interactions (University of Bari, 2021); European Trade Study Group Conference (Ghent University, 2021); The International Political Economy of Trade Graduate Conference (Yale University, 2021); Global Economic Policy Group (jointly organized by FernUniversitat and University of Westminster, 2021)